The next World Cup format sounds horrendous

One thing I do like about the 16 group format is the 32 team knockout. Proper cup football.

Also worth mentioning that the disgrace of Dijon happened because of the relationship between the two countries, not because a draw suited both. Germany needed to win but a large win would have knocked Austria out. They scored early and settled for 1-0. Austria seemed to be aware of the 'arrangement'. And it was a 4 team group.

I'm sure there will also be a benefit to finishing top rather than second in the group
 
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Rofesleg said:
One thing I do like about the 16 group format is the 32 team knockout. Proper cup football.

Also worth mentioning that the disgrace of Dijon happened because of the relationship between the two countries, not because a draw suited both. Germany needed to win but a large win would have knocked Austria out. They scored early and settled for 1-0. Austria seemed to be aware of the 'arrangement'. And it was a 4 team group.

I'm sure there will also be a benefit to finishing top rather than second in the group
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There’s a reason it’s known as the Anschluss game
 
Randy said:
Not in this world cup. But in previous.
Are you saying there are players out there who don't pick and choose which national side they represent?
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You seem to be labouring under some kind of misconception about the FIFA eligibility rules. To start with, players are not free to just pick and choose whoever they want to play for. They're only eligible to play for a country whose nationality they hold, except for the four "home nations" (where special rules have to apply because all the players have the same nationality - British).

But if a player is born with more than one nationality, then they surely have to be allowed to choose - no-one else can dictate to them that they must represent one country rather than another.

And there are restrictions, which are clearly laid out in the FIFA statutes, and which have been agreed to by all the FIFA associations. Up to the age of 21, a player with more than one nationality can represent different countries at the various youth levels (but they can only play 3 times at "A" international level before being locked in). After that age they can only "choose" who to represent if they haven't played at "A" international level yet.

And a player can only change their national eligibility once in their life (barring forced nationality changes, such as when a country breaks up).

Another restriction is that if a player (who has not played a full international before) wants to change their national eligibility after the age of 21, to a country they have no familial ties to, they can only represent their new country after they've been resident on its territory for 5 years.

And those instances tend to be a rarity - in the vast majority of cases, players who "switch" or "choose" a different national team at some point in their life are those who were born with more than one nationality in the first place.
 
Liamo said:
Another restriction is that if a player (who has not played a full international before) wants to change their national eligibility after the age of 21, to a country they have no familial ties to, they can only represent their new country after they've been resident on its territory for 5 years.
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This, for me, should be removed. I don't feel that living in a country for 5 years is a valid reason to represent it, unless accompanied by full citizenship rights
 
BoroMart said:
This, for me, should be removed. I don't feel that living in a country for 5 years is a valid reason to represent it, unless accompanied by full citizenship rights
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You need to hold citizenship/nationality to represent a country, so I'm fairly sure that is the case already.

Matty Cash had to obtain Polish citizenship before he could represent them, for example.
 
BoroMart said:
This, for me, should be removed. I don't feel that living in a country for 5 years is a valid reason to represent it, unless accompanied by full citizenship rights
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Sorry, I guess I didn't make it clear - just living in the country isn't enough. The primary and overarching requirement (which I did mention, though only at the beginning) is that you must hold the nationality of the country you want to play for.

Edit: I see that @TeaCider beat me to it.
 
Liamo said:
Sorry, I guess I didn't make it clear - just living in the country isn't enough. The primary and overarching requirement (which I did mention, though only at the beginning) is that you must hold the nationality of the country you want to play for.
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But it must just be a rubber stamping exercise surely? The respective government immigration department aren't going to block their own team by knocking the application back?

I assume it will already be in place when the respective FA approaches the player to join them, fancy a game for us mate? You'll get dual nationality and we've already got you a passport sorted.....
 
TeaCider said:
You need to hold citizenship/nationality to represent a country, so I'm fairly sure that is the case already.

Matty Cash had to obtain Polish citizenship before he could represent them, for example.
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Although just to be clear, it is nationality and not citizenship that counts. I used to think the two were synonymous, but as FIFA points out in their statutes, there are a couple of countries in the world where their national laws make a distinction between citizenship and nationality.

They further point out that under international law, the legal bond between an individual and the state is expressed by the word "nationality".
 
Caesium137 said:
But it must just be a rubber stamping exercise surely? The respective government immigration department aren't going to block their own team by knocking the application back?

I assume it will already be in place when the respective FA approaches the player to join them, fancy a game for us mate? You'll get dual nationality and we've already got you a passport sorted.....
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Not necessarily. Many countries are quite protective of their nationality. They have laws about how it can be acquired and can be pretty strict about who can get it.

A case in point is Ashley Barnes. It seemed as though he qualified for Austria and actually played a couple of times for their U20 side. As the article below states, the ÖFB (Austrian FA) wanted to give him a full international call up and with their support, he applied for citizenship.

However, despite the "intensive work" they did on his naturalization, his application was still rejected by the Austrian Interior Ministry who apparently decided he had not performed sufficient services to the nation. As the article points out, "the ÖFB was not happy with the actions of the politicians."

Barnes will not be Austrian

So it seems that having the support of the country's FA is not enough to get your application rubber-stamped.
 
Liamo said:
Not necessarily. Many countries are quite protective of their nationality. They have laws about how it can be acquired and can be pretty strict about who can get it.

A case in point is Ashley Barnes. It seemed as though he qualified for Austria and actually played a couple of times for their U20 side. As the article below states, the ÖFB (Austrian FA) wanted to give him a full international call up and with their support, he applied for citizenship.

However, despite the "intensive work" they did on his naturalization, his application was still rejected by the Austrian Interior Ministry who apparently decided he had not performed sufficient services to the nation. As the article points out, "the ÖFB was not happy with the actions of the politicians."

Barnes will not be Austrian

So it seems that having the support of the country's FA is not enough to get your application rubber-stamped.
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In one case, for a pretty poor player? There are lots of players of higher quality who have switched, or played for other nations. I'm 100% confident if Barnes had been the next Messi it would have been a formality, and his 'services to the nation' would have been met in some way.
 
Liamo said:
Although just to be clear, it is nationality and not citizenship that counts. I used to think the two were synonymous, but as FIFA points out in their statutes, there are a couple of countries in the world where their national laws make a distinction between citizenship and nationality.

They further point out that under international law, the legal bond between an individual and the state is expressed by the word "nationality".
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Yeah, but that's largely because of places like the UK and USA, which control autonomous regions that aren't fully integrated in to the country.

American Samoa, Bermuda, Gibraltar etc.
 
Sort of

In the regular season, overtime continues for up to 10 minutes of clock time. If the game remains tied after the extra 10 minutes, the game ends in a tie. Both teams have two time outs, and the two-minute warning applies. In the postseason, the initial overtime period proceeds for 15 minutes.
 
Zoophonic said:
Very interesting solution. Good read
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It is interesting ...
1670540003399.png
...but A1, A2 & A3 could win 3 games and obviously B1, B2 & B3 lose 3 games.
A3 are eliminated on 9 points due to less goals scored, B1 & B2 qualify for the next round having lost 3 games based on not conceding as many goals as B3.

That seems to introduce another egregious element of unfairness.

Maybe a 'golden loser' rule would solve that, something like if the 3rd place team would've finished in the top 2 of the other group, they qualify instead of the 2nd place team.
 
The simplest solution is to just play more games in the current format.

If you're going to shoehorn more countries in, more games is the price you have to pay.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1600532736237871107

When the arch-d*ckhead is coming out with comments like that, I think there's a strong chance they'll stick with the current format.
 
BoroMart said:
This, for me, should be removed. I don't feel that living in a country for 5 years is a valid reason to represent it, unless accompanied by full citizenship rights
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unless they are amazing at football and changing nationality to english, then its fine for me
 
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